GMB Welcomes A Move To Ban Backlisting Under EU Law

13 Mar 2014

GMB European officer Kathleen Walker Shaw said: “We have worked closely with MEPs for two years to ensure that the revision of the Data Protection rules now includes specific measures to outlaw blacklisting across the EU, and welcomes the European Parliament’s support today. GMB had called for the amendment to ensure that sensitive data including membership and activities in trade unions should under no circumstances be used to put workers on blacklists, and to vet or bar them from future employment. It also explicitly prohibits the processing, drawing up and passing on of blacklists.
The measures require governments to adopt adequate sanctions and penalties to enforce these measures. Existing UK legislation will need to be strengthened to ensure companies acting illegally in blacklisting workers are forced to own up, clean up and pay up.”

GMB national officer Justin Bowden said: “Over 3,200 workers were found to have been on the blacklist yet to date none have been compensated for the devastation caused to workers and their families through being barred from employment. GMB continues its campaign to get justice for these workers, and we hope that these measures will help us to address this scandal. Many of the companies using this blacklist were European-based multinationals, and GMB has been working with our European trade union colleagues to target these companies and bring them to book.

GMB believes no public or government authority should use taxpayers’ money to award public contracts to blacklisting companies who have failed to compensate workers fully and have cleaned up their act”